Specifications

Why chase the iPhone, when we can free the world
with open mobile things?
DOC SEARLS
I’ve been writing, one way or another, for
Linux Journal since 1996. Through that
whole time, we’ve focused more aspira-
tional attention on one receding goal than
on any other: the desktop. Our progress
has been asymptotic, on a curve that
approaches but never arrives. And it
won’t, as long as we’re chasing Apple and
Microsoft, rather than blazing trails where
both those companies can only follow.
One trail is the MID: the Mobile
Internet Device. In last month’s UpFront
section, we reported that some of these
seemed to be on track for public unveil-
ing at the Summer Olympics in Beijing,
which run from August 8–24. Because
this is our August issue, it’s possibly hap-
pening as you read this. LinuxWorld Expo
is also happening this month, in San
Francisco, California, from August 4–7.
But the more interesting trail, the
one where we can score the biggest
win of all, is in the mobile phone fron-
tier. At the far edge of that is a point
where the distinction between the MID
and the phone verges on zero. Between
here and there are many fun possibili-
ties, and a few scary ones.
The fun trail follows a vector we can
project by connecting dots drawn earlier
this year. One was the purchase of
Trolltech by Nokia. Another was news that
Nokia was helping port Ubuntu Linux to
the ARM architecture (used by the Nokia
N810, among many other devices)—atop
reports that the Hildon Input Method
(HIM) already had migrated from Nokia’s
Maemo to Ubuntu Mobile. Another
one—and perhaps the biggest—was
news that a new broadband venture was
planned by Sprint, Clearwire, Comcast,
Google, Time Warner and Intel.
It’s easy to project a lot of baggage
onto that last one, and to get lost in a fog
of vendor sports color commentary, but
the Linux angle is relatively straightfor-
ward. Google’s Android—a Linux-based
software platform for open mobile devices
(primarily mobile phones)—gets a shot at
success via a coalition of partners that can
produce or support many different
kinds of devices and new wireless ways
to connect them to the Net.
Another potential green field will be
opened by 802.11y. Think of it as high-
power Wi-Fi, governed by a “lite” licens-
ing regime approved by the FCC about a
year ago. With this regime, licensees pay
a small fee for a non-exclusive nationwide
license. They, then pay a smaller additional
fee for every high-powered base station
they deploy. Nobody on the receiving end
requires a license. Nor do the operators.
Licensing allows stations to be identifiable,
which allows multiple operators politely to
avoid interference. The specification cov-
ers signaling protocols both to discover
and prevent interference. Proponents,
including Peter Ecclesine of Cisco (from
whom I learned what I just wrote), believe
802.11y holds much promise for a world
where individuals and communities can
connect just about any way they like, free
from rule by giant carriers.
Throw OLPC Wi-Fi-based mesh net-
working in there too. It has lots of possi-
bilities outside its original mission as well.
Nobody knows yet where any of this
will go. But the contest, as usual, will be
between freedom and control, open and
closed, proprietary and public domain. The
difference this time will be the playing
field, which will be inside companies as
well as out in the marketplace. On one
side will be those that advocate locked-
down appliances with a reduced subset of
features that advantage only the company
selling the devices and its partners in the
equipment, network or content produc-
tion and distribution businesses. On the
other side will be those who understand
that markets grow fastest on generative
foundations—ones that support, with little
or no bias, a maximum variety of uses.
The best example of a locked-
down mobile appliance is the iPhone.
Although it’s beautiful, useful and
ground-breaking, the iPhone also will
remain closed to all but the applications
Apple approves, many of those for
Apple’s own purposes. Apple will
continue to pioneer here, but with a
closed and controlling bias.
We have no equivalent best examples
of generative mobile devices. Nokia’s
N series (770 800, 810...) is an early
prototype, and there still is no widespread
cellular (or cell-like) system that provides
uncrippled Net connectivity alongside
VoIP service.
But, generative mobile is the goal.
To mix metaphors a bit, think of the
means as a recipe. The ingredients are
there. The table is set. What we need
now are some chefs to mix the ingredi-
ents together and produce some meals
that are appetizing to the marketplace.
As I explained in this column last
month, the best examples of recent
generative inventions are the white-box
PC and the Internet. The PC started
changing the world in the 1980s, and
the Internet started doing the same in
the 1990s. Our hope now is that the
world will be changed in the 2000s by
generative mobile devices that connect
to an equally generative Internet.
The one sure thing is that Linux
will be the base ingredient. The rest
is up to the chefs.
I
Doc Searls is Senior Editor of
Linux Journal
and a fellow with
both the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard
University and the Center for Information Technology and
Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Mixing Up
a Generative
Mobile Feast
EOF
96 | august 2008 www.linuxjournal.com